Samsung is the market leader in electronics and home appliances and it probably will be using third parties to have all the IOT grids working in tandem. What I'm interested to see is how the Samsung electronics tie up together under a home automation system.

Samsung has recently been showing a decline in the growth curve in their smartphone market. If the smartphone is going to be a major IOT hub then they have to pull together their sales. If they want the IOT to do business then they have to re-establish their dominance in the smartphone department. Mostly they have been milking the Galaxy series, and now we see that other manufacturers are giving better experiences in smartphones. Their quality have gone down ever since that plain old design of every single galaxy phone.

I have no problems with clocks. My range and my microwave have clocks which I use all the time. The problem is with synchronization/accuracy. It would be nice if the (supposedly useless) clocks would resynch with actual time after power outages. The clock on my cable box did that over the cable, but the latest box has no clock, so now I can't use that clock to synch the rest in the house.

I don't need my toaster talking to my refrigerator - just my clock listening to WWV or its equivalent.

I think I understand the benefits of IoT and the benefits of connecting, controlling smart appliances using the smart phone. But I too could not clearly make out any significant benefit of removing the clock display for either the manufacturers or the consumers. Once the appliances are connected on IoT, even after a power disruption, clocks could be set accurately and synchronized by the phone.

I do not think there is anything wrong with the clock but it will really help if the device can automatically sense what the user intend to do with the device and adjust things automatically. For example, it will be really good if the refrigrator is connected with the internet and depending on what's available it can tell what cooking receipe options are available and which applicances are needed and how much time is required. If user chooses oven then oven will automatically starts to preheat and things like that.

I think many of us experience the frustration of resetting all those clocks -- one on nearly every appliance -- after a power outage. It would indeed be a much appreciated feature to have these appliances connected and automatically setting their clocks from the network.

As for my refrigerator talking to my toaster oven, I can't say I really need that capability, but I can imagine ways in which that too would be useful.

With an IoT, all the random devices will be connected to the Internet so all their clocks should be properly set and synchronized without our help. It would be interesting to know which clocks today provide the primary time references for connected users. As the number of people wearing watches declines, I'd predict that:

alarm clocks / clock radios / Smart phones are the primary clocks to awaken people in the morning

kitchen stove / microwave clocks are the primary source of time information as people prepare to go to work

car clocks are the primary source of time information as people drive / commute to work

Smartphone clocks are the primary source of time information as people walk around

computer clocks are the primary source of time information at the desk

In conjunction with unveiling of EE Times’ Silicon 60 list, journalist & Silicon 60 researcher Peter Clarke hosts a conversation on startups in the electronics industry. One of Silicon Valley's great contributions to the world has been the demonstration of how the application of entrepreneurship and venture capital to electronics and semiconductor hardware can create wealth with developments in semiconductors, displays, design automation, MEMS and across the breadth of hardware developments. But in recent years concerns have been raised that traditional venture capital has turned its back on hardware-related startups in favor of software and Internet applications and services. Panelists from incubators join Peter Clarke in debate.